Following the Interferry Security Committee meeting in February, we have written to the French administration regarding their plans for the on-board security screening of ferry passengers between vehicle decks and the accommodation areas. In our view, vehicle decks are not a safe environment to harbour large number of passengers in transition to the stairways – such an accumulation would increase the risk of accidents, inhibit effective evacuation and limit the scope for protection from an armed attack.
Interferry is in dialogue with the European Commission, the European Union member states, NATO and other stakeholders to support a wider, risk-based approach to any new security measures – recognizing that security, unlike safety, involves many route-specific factors.
To that end, we do not support the French strategy to impose unilateral measures and have strongly recommended that all parties should work together to develop solutions that could be applied locally in a bespoke manner.
